A synopsis of the story

This sequel to Journey to the Centre of the
Earth begins with Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) being arrested by police
after breaking into a satellite installation in a bid to boost an encrypted message
he received from an unknown source. In an effort to bond with his new stepson,
ex navy decoding expert Hank Parsons (Dwayne Johnson) decodes the cryptic
message for Sean, and we learn that the message is from Sean’s grandfather
Alexander Anderson (Michael Cain). Apparently Sean’s grandfather has discovered
the location of Jules Verne’s legendary Mysterious Island in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean. Hank agrees to take Sean to the coordinates identified in the
coded message and the pair set off for the Pacific.

Hank and Sean hire helicopter pilot and tour
operator Gabato (Luis Guzman) and his daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) to fly
them to the spot identified in the coded message but as they get close to their
destination a hurricane forces the helicopter down. The group survive the crash
to discover they have landed on Mysterious Island and set off to explore their
surroundings. They meet Sean’s grandfather, who has been living on the island
for some time but soon discover that the island is sinking and that they have
only two days to find a way off.

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

The Mysterious Island contains some action
violence with no blood and gore depicted. Examples include:

Sean, recklessly riding a trail bike, is
chased by several police cars. He rides across a train crossing, narrowly
missing a passing train. He rides through residential backyards running over a
number of garden ornaments and then up a backyard ramp to land in the middle of
a swimming pool.

Sean, Hank, Kailani and Gabato run for
their lives through the jungle while being chased by a giant lizard. On one
occasion the giant lizard narrowly misses seizing Sean in its jaws. The lizard
is knocked unconscious just before it manages to eat its prey when two large
logs swinging on suspended ropes hit it.

While riding on the backs of giant flying
bees, Sean and Kailani are chased by two gigantic birds. The birds are trying
to eat the bees and at one point we see a slow-motion image of a giant bird
narrowly missing Sean’s bee. Sean steers the bees to dodge the giant birds
causing Kailani to fall from the back of the bee and disappear into the clouds
below. Kailani survives and is uninjured. A short time later Sean is knocked
from his bee by low hanging branches and his ankle is dislocated.

Hank in an aqualung suit faces a giant
electric eel. He throws a spear into the
eel’s mouth as it lunges at him.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent
scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb
children under the age of eight, including the following:

Sean, Hank, Kailani, and Gabato fly though
an electrical storm with bolts of lightening striking their helicopter, blowing
off the tail section and setting the helicopter on fire. The helicopter spins
out of control and is sucked into the vortex of a hurricane, eventually
breaking up into a number of pieces and disappearing from sight.

A volcano on the Island erupts, spewing
rocks and lava into the air while massive earthquakes cause the Island to break
apart. Kailani, Gabato and Alexander stand on a ledge overlooking the ocean and
are hurled into the sea

There are many giant scary creatures,
including giant spiders, centipedes, lizards and birds and an extended scene of
a giant electric moray eel with a mouth full of sharp needle-like teeth and
flashing bolts of electricity.

One scene depicts the skeletal remains of a
man sitting clutching a book. Kailani wrestles the book from the dead man’s
hands.

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group may also be
scared by some of the above-mentioned scenes

Nudity and sexual activity

In one humorous scene, Hank, who has a
muscle bound physic, demonstrates a move involving undulating pectoral muscles,
designed to attract women.

After Sean saves the Kailani’s life, we see
Kailani sitting on his lap with her arms around his neck while the pair gaze
into each other eyes.

Kailani kisses Sean on the lips

Use of substances

Nothing of concern

Coarse language

The film contains some infrequent low-level
coarse language that children may imitate. Examples include:

“What the blue heck?”, “freaking gorgeous”,
“that’s so sick”

In a nutshell

Journey 2: The mysterious island is loosely
based on Jules Verne’s classic novel The Mysterious Island and is aimed at
teens, with some giant creatures and other scenes too scary for younger
children. The film is a fast paced and contains all the elements required for a
good adventure film including action, fantasy, romance and humour.

The main message from this movie is that
love, friendship and a caring family are worth more than all the wealth in the
world.

Values in this movie that parents may wish
to reinforce with their children include family love and sacrifice

This movie could also give parents the
opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life
consequences, such as:

The misleading manner in which the film
portrays the consequences of Sean’s reckless and life-endangering behaviour at
the start of the film and how his stepfather’s relationship with police enables
him to escape responsibility for his actions.